Napoleon: Astound FlexMount NEFL50AB

A built-in fire on any wall in the house—no chimney, no gas line.

Quick Facts

• Heating Capacity: 250–500 sq ft
• Fuel: Electric.
• Controls: Remote with thermostat and 7-day schedule; app and voice control available.
• Fan: Included

Who It’s For

Rooms with no chimney behind the wall and no gas line under the floor usually stay rooms without a fire. You need a fireplace that fits the wall you have—hung on it, set into it, or wrapped around the end of it. If you’re finishing a bedroom, a basement, or a living room and you want the fire built in rather than hung on like a TV, this is the one to look at. Settle for a standard wall-hung electric and you get one look from one angle; the Astound FlexMount gives you the choice.

What Makes It Special

Most electric fireplaces install one way. This one mounts on the wall, recesses partway, or sits fully flush, and can be finished as a 1-sided, 2-sided, or 3-sided fire—the finishing edge panels and trim come in the box. The same unit works as a flat feature wall, a corner wrap, or a see-through peninsula between two rooms.

The fire holds up its end. Orange and yellow flames carry a spark effect that mimics a real fire over the included Beach Fire log set or Woodland media, with 13 ember bed and top light colors on the remote. The Napoleon Home app opens up more combinations, sets schedules, and adds voice control through Google Home and Alexa—so you can run it from the couch or from the office.

For heat, ECO mode runs at half output for a mild evening, BOOST runs the heater and blower flat out for a cold one, and hardwiring the unit to a 240-volt circuit doubles its heat output over a standard plug-in connection.

Possible Downsides

• It warms the room it’s in, not the house. Plan on it as comfort heat for a single room, with your furnace holding the baseline.
• Reaching its maximum heat requires hardwiring to a 240-volt circuit. Plugged into a standard outlet, it delivers half the heat.
• Only the Beach Fire log set and Woodland media come in the box. Birch logs, glass beads, mineral rocks, and black crystals are optional kits.

If you want a built-in fire on a wall that was never built for one, the Astound FlexMount is the right decision. The room with the blank wall becomes the one everyone ends up in.

Media options include the standard birch log kit, mineral rocks, black crystals, and glass beads in amber, black, blue, clear, and topaz, and an optional wall mount controller with black or white covers is available where a fixed control suits the space.